Each year, when Halloween rolls around, genre fans and general audiences alike look for horror movies to watch. Usually, they turn to the usual suspects — Halloween, Trick ‘r Treat, Night of the Demons. Beyond the well-known and beloved seasonal classics lies a chilling world of underrated gems that deserve a place on everyone’s October watch list. Despite being undersung, these great films deliver on atmosphere, chills, and setting — and they’re all set on or around the spooky holiday of Halloween.
Curated below are such underrated horror movies that deserve to be Halloween staples. Some are underappreciated gems, others were overlooked at their time of release, and a few are slowly becoming beloved cult classics. From supernatural thrills to gore to low-budget indies, these scary flicks provide the seasonal feel you’re looking for this October.
Here are 10 underrated horror movies that should be Halloween staples.
‘The House of the Devil’ (2009)
Long before Ti West brought Maxine Minx and Pearl Howard to life, he made the retro Satanic panic-inspired movie The House of the Devil. Desperate for cash to move out of the dorms and into her own apartment, Samantha (Jocelin Donahue) ventures out to a remote house in the woods to babysit one night, but upon arriving, learns that her charge, who’s not to be disturbed, is actually an elderly woman. Reluctantly, she agrees to stay, but her night becomes increasingly plagued by strange occurrences. Soon, she’ll come to wish she turned down the offer.
A Highly Stylized Film Dripping in ’80s Nostalgia
Taking place in the 1980s and shot on 16mm film, The House of the Devil wonderfully recreates the aesthetic and mood of horror classics from that era. The Halloween vibes are immaculate, from the rich atmosphere to the creepy Victorian home setting to the autumnal chill that radiates from the screen. West masterfully builds tension with long, quiet stretches, subtle dread, and slow pans, steadily creeping under viewers’ skin before a third act that unravels into chaos. While it may not have gotten the mainstream attention it deserves, this stylish throwback deserves a place among Halloween staples.
‘WNUF Halloween Special’ (2013)
WNUF Halloween Special is another film driven by ’80s nostalgia. The movie is presented as the sole surviving VHS recorded footage of a local television station’s 1987 live Halloween broadcast. A news reporter, Frank Stewart (Paul Fahrenkopf), investigates the notoriously haunted Webber House, the site of a brutal double murder, along with a couple of paranormal experts and a Catholic exorcist, leading to a chaotic and terrifying event.
An Offbeat, Spooky Experience
Throughout the flick, news segments and era-accurate commercials are played, making for a truly immersive and realistic experience. There’s something both incredibly nostalgic and eerily unsettling about the grainy audio and lo-fi visuals. Although it starts out with a great deal of laughs and with extremely subtle scares, the horror builds slowly until going off the rails in the final act. WNUF Halloween Special isn’t just an underrated found footage movie, it’s tailor-made for October nights.
‘The Houses October Built’ (2014)
The severely underrated The Houses October Built is a prime example of how great the found footage subgenre can be. Blending found-footage horror with a documentary-style approach, the film follows a group of five friends traveling across America to explore the most extreme Halloween haunts. Along the way, they interview those running the attractions, learning about the dark side of the industry, which is how they hear about Blue Skeleton, a mysterious haunt that changes location every year and is said to employ real torture. They set out to find it, and soon come to regret that they ever did.
Like a Real-Life Nightmare
The movie features real interviews with those who work in the industry and includes actual news segments of tragedies that have occurred in these places. Because it’s partially filmed in several real-life, creepy haunted attractions, the found footage flick has an authentic feel to it that helps build atmosphere and suspense. While it was met with average reviews, flying under the radar of many, The Houses October Built captures the heart of Halloween in a uniquely unsettling way.
‘Tales of Halloween’ (2015)
Tales of Halloween delivers 10 short horror stories, each directed by a different filmmaker, all taking place in the same suburban town on Halloween night, with the segments presented as tales being relayed on a late-night radio show. The cast is filled with genre darlings, such as Adrienne Barbeau, Lin Shaye, Alex Essoe, Caroline Williams, and Madison Iseman. Stories range in tone — some are incredibly scary, others are campy and gimmicky, there are some humorous ones, and of course, there is some gore.
An Anthology That Captures the Spirit of Halloween
It’s precisely the film’s variety that makes it so enjoyable. All 10 tales beautifully encapsulate the spooky nature of Halloween. Despite being tailored to the holiday, Tales of Halloween never reached the same level of recognition as other horror anthologies, but it certainly deserves it. This macabre love letter to Halloween is pure October fun and is certainly worth a watch.
‘Boys in the Trees’ (2016)
Boys in the Trees is a coming-of-age horror drama from Australia set in suburban Victoria. It’s Halloween 1997, the eve before the last day of high school for Corey (Toby Wallace) and his skateboard gang, The Gormits. After their ringleader, Jango (Justin Holborow), bullies his old buddy, Jonah (Gulliver McGrath), hurting him on the skateboarding rink, Corey walks his estranged friend home. On the way, they reminisce about the past and contemplate the future. The two cross the bridge where they used to play as kids, and Jonah takes Corey through one of their childhood games, sharing ghost stories and blurring the lines between fantasy and reality.
An Underrated Coming-of-Age Horror
With its surreal atmosphere and melancholic tale, the film oozes with nostalgia. The Halloween setting is stunningly captured, with Halloween-decorated lawns, fog, jack-o-lanterns, costumed teens and kids, and eerie suburban streets. It’s the perfect backdrop for this emotionally rich tale of memory, regret, the pain of growing up, loss of innocence, friendship, and forgiveness. While it doesn’t rely on typical horror scares, its slow-burn mystery is well-suited for a reflective October night.
‘Hell Fest’ (2018)
Hell Fest brings the classic slasher formula to a Halloween theme park. A year after a young woman is brutally stabbed to death and hung to look like a prop at a haunted attraction, Natalie (Amy Forsyth) and her friends visit the traveling horror carnival of Hell Fest. Throughout the night, she keeps spotting a masked stranger following their group, but they chalk it up to him being an employee trying to scare them. Little do they know they’re prey caught in a cat-and-mouse game with a serial killer.
A Solid, Stylish Slasher Tailor-Made for Spooky Season
The movie wasn’t met with a positive reception, and while it’s not a perfect film by any means and definitely comes with its shortcomings, it deserves a lot more love than it gets. Its setting is incredibly immersive, with elaborate haunted house sets, neon lights, creepy mazes, costumed crowds, and all things macabre. Hell Fest absolutely oozes in seasonal style, and has enough atmosphere and suspense to earn it a spot among Halloween staples.
‘The Mortuary Collection’ (2019)
Another horror anthology that deserves a place in your October rotation is the deliciously macabre The Mortuary Collection. The film is set in the 1980s in a Victorian-style mortuary run by Montgomery Dark (Clancy Brown) in the small island town of Raven’s End. A young woman named Sam (Caitlin Custer) knocks on his door, responding to the “Help Wanted” sign outside. As he interviews her for the position, the eccentric mortician regales her with tales of bizarre deaths that have occurred in Raven’s End. As the story unfolds, each of their true natures are revealed.
A Wonderful Horror Anthology With a Clever Twist
Each story is visually lavish and richly atmospheric, as well as set in different decades. There’s a little bit of something for everyone —Lovecraftian terror, gore, gothic-leaning vibes, and straight evil. The Mortuary Collection deserves all the love and attention that Trick ‘r Treat receives, and just like it, it should be a Halloween staple for horror fans each year. The well-crafted anthology has a dark storybook tone to it, delivering a variety of scares and a macabre aesthetic that feels timeless.
‘Haunt’ (2019)
Set on a dark Halloween night in Carbondale, Illinois, Haunt stars Katie Stevens (The Bold Type) as Harper, a young college student struggling to escape an abusive relationship. After her boyfriend’s most recent attack, her roommate encourages her to break up with him over text and go out with her and her friends. For a post-bar outing, the group visits an extreme haunted house, where the scares turn out to be anything but fun, turning their night into a violent and deadly one at the hands of a mask-wearing cult.
A Blood-Soaked, Wild Ride
Haunt is a fast-paced, mean-spirited slasher that makes for a relentless Halloween watch. The criminally underrated horror movie flew under the radar of many, despite being one of the scariest entries in the genre in 2019. Offering a fresh take on haunted attraction stories, the movie delivers high-takes tension, a suspenseful atmosphere, and gruesome kills. Save this film for a night you’re looking to be truly tormented.
‘Dark Harvest’ (2023)
Loosely based on the 2006 novel of the same name by Norman Partridge, Dark Harvest is set in 1962 in a sleepy Midwestern town that has a terrifying Halloween tradition called the Run. Every year, a deadly, supernatural creature known as Sawtooth Jack rises from the cornfields, and teenage boys are tasked with stopping it from reaching the local church in the heart of town. Their incentive is a shiny new Corvette and a one-way ticket out of their hometown, a prize most local teen boys are willing to risk their lives for. But none have ever been told the full truth about the Run.
A Future Halloween Classic
Dark Harvest is loaded with a Halloween and autumnal atmosphere, with the holiday baked into the very core of the story. The underappreciated horror movie will undoubtedly become a Halloween cult classic down the line. Although it has its shortcomings, it delivers on every bit of October spookiness. With a mythological backbone, it’s perfect for those looking to indulge in a bit of fantasy with their supernatural watch.
‘Totally Killer’ (2023)
Totally Killer uniquely blends the slasher subgenre with the sci-fi genre into wildly fun results. Kiernan Shipka stars as Jamie Hughes, a teenage girl whose mother, Pam (Julie Bowen in the present, Olivia Holt in the past), survived a serial killing spree on Halloween of 1987, which took the lives of her best friends. Decades later, the killer comes back for Pam on Halloween, while Jamie is out at a concert. When he targets her next, Jamie takes refuge in her friend’s school project, a makeshift time machine and inadvertently ends up in 1987, where she comes face-to-face with her mom as a teen, and tries to save her friends.
A Fun Slasher Homage
The horror comedy is perfect for those who don’t like overwhelmingly scary movies. Totally Killer comes with a great deal of laughs and doesn’t take itself too seriously, but isn’t afraid to go dark when it’s needed. Blending ’80s nostalgia with classic slasher elements, it creates a fun, campy tone perfect for Halloween.
This story originally appeared on Movieweb
